ASA 5505 Questions:

I'm a surgeon, not an IT guy. However, I live in a small town and do my own IT for my EMR and network. Recently purchased and installed ASA 5505 (on recommendation of EMR vendor) for vpn setup for electronic prescribing and patient portal. Current version is ASA v7.2(3) w/ ASDM v5.2. I also have the Cisco VPN Client 4.8.01.

I have a CD that came w/ the router that has the following on it:
ASA 8.0
ASDM 6.0
Cisco VPN Client 5.0.0 (MSI)
Secure Desktop 3.2
AnyConnect VPN Client 2.0 (for ASA 8.0)

Questions:
1.) Should I upgrade to 8.0 and 6.0? Are there any issues that are problematic? Will the upgrade keep my current ASA configuration?
2.) Should I upgrade to Cisco VPN Client 5.0.0?
3.) What is difference between Cisco VPN Client and AnyConnect VPN Client?
4.) What exactly is Secure Desktop? I haven't found anything that really explains what it does or is useful for? Is it worth installing?

Any help/answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hey

1. I tend to upgrade for benefits rather than features, you need to really take a look at the differences in the 2 versions to see what you require.

www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/as...asarn80.html#wp37821

2. It is always advisable to upgrade the VPN client to latest version imo.

3. Anyconnect client is for SSL VPN and TLS, VPN cleint is for Ipsec and pptp vpn's

4. www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/csd/cs...csdrn33.html#wp39035

Notes for secure desktop, Basically a handy tool for further securing communication over SSL VPN.


Thanks

I would upgrade to 8.0, just because I like the looks of it better

I would also use the latest VPN client.

Thanks for the replies. Not having done this type of upgrade before, when I upgrade to 8.0.2, will the ASA 5505 'keep' my current configuration, or will I have to re-enter everything?

Unless you have a problem that needs to be resolved with a new IOS, I don't recommend upgrading just for the sake of recommending. Cisco tends to break things that are working from one release to the next.

But to answer your question, your config would not be lost.

Thanks for the replies. Not having done this type of upgrade before, when I upgrade to 8.0.2, will the ASA 5505 'keep' my current configuration, or will I have to re-enter everything?

No, the ASA will keep your config, but I would still back it up.

Do a show run from the CLI (or via the GUI's send command) and copy and past that text into a notpad doc.